Chevalier, mult estes guariz explained

Chevalier, mult estes guariz is an anonymous Old French crusade song written between April 1146 and June 1147.^[1] The title (in fact, the incipit) translated "Knights, you are under sure protection". The song predates the chansonnier works of the trouvères.^[2] The author of the song is not known. He encourages knights to join King Louis VII to fight in the Second Crusade. He was probably a layman and his intended audience the knightly and noble classes.^[1]

The song is preserved in a single manuscript, Universitätsbibliothek Erfurt, Dep. Erf., CA 8° 32, copied in England in the later 12th century.^[2]

The poet compares the crusade to a tournament arranged by God at Edessa:

Recordings

• David Munroe & the Early Music Consort of London, Music of the crusades (1971)
• Oliphant, Songs of the Crusades (2000)
• Richard Searles, Jongleurs Dance (2006)
• Jordi Savall & Monserrat Figueras, Jerusalem (2009)
• Toronto Consort, The Way of the Pilgrim (2016)

Citations

1. Jonathan Phillips, The Second Crusade: Extending the Frontiers of Christendom (Yale University Press 2008), pp. 77–79, with an English translation of the song at pp. 283–284.
2. Jacob . Uri . October 2021 . Chevalier mult estes guariz and the 'pre-chansonnier' vernacular lyric . Plainsong & Medieval Music . en . 30 . 2 . 119–140 . 10.1017/S0961137121000115 . 246637325 . 0961-1371.